A wide variety of fishing lures are available to the fisherman. Basically fishing lures are of two types: The hard fishing lures, such as those constructed of wood, metal or hard plastic materials; and the soft lures, viz., those lures constructed of soft plastic materials which are readily moldable and can be tailor-made for fishing by insertion of a variety of hooks therein.
In addition to the use of this wide variety of fishing lures, various coating materials are available to provide a fish attractant scent in addition to the visual appeal presented by each individual fishing lure. The lure with such a fish attractant material coated thereon is then an odor-bearing lure.
There have been provided a variety of fish attractant coating compositions intended to be applied to both hard and soft fishing lures to enhance the strikeability of the lure by fish. Most of these fish attractant coating compositions have disadvantages attendant to their use. For example, some of the compositions are oily compositions which, when applied to a lure which is subsequently put into the water, quickly float off the lure to limit the duration of olfactory attractiveness of the lure to the fish. Unfortunately, the fisherman is basically using the lure to rapidly distribute chum in and above the area where the lure is cast. Such oily fish attractants, not being retained on the lure, quickly rise to the surface of the water and float away in the current present where the fisherman is fishing.
Some other lures coated with releasable active materials are wax-based and therefore do not allow for easy dissemination of the active fish attractant to the interface of the water with the lure.
Other odoriferous fish attractants are solids which cannot be readily applied onto the lures. Such solid odoriferous materials are characteristically cast or sprinkled on the water in the area where the fishing lures are cast. This, too, unfortunately results in merely providing chum on the surface of the water in an area where the hooks and the lure is located far below.
Other lures are of the type wherein the fish attractant material is distributed throughout a matrix of water-soluble polymer material, for example by being molded therein, to allow for release of such fish attractant into the water upon dissolution of the polymer matrix thereby resulting in leeching out of the fish attractant. Many of these lures take too long to permit the fish attractant material to be leeched out and delivered for practical use in attracting the fish.
Conversely, in other fish attractant-containing matrix lures, release of the active scent material is too fast, resulting in too early a presentation of the fish attractant material.
These and other shortcomings are by and large eliminated in accordance with the present invention which offers a combination of readily, quickly released liquid fish attractant scent and more gradually released microencapsulated liquid fish attractant scent in the same coating composition which is not oily and which when dried on the lure results in a dried film having sufficient durability to per, nit its use for as long as several hours of fishing. The dried film is retained on the lure when the lure is cast into the water and therefore results in a gradual presentation of the fish attractant material over a more extended period of time at the very location where the lure presents itself to the fish, viz., at the very location where the lure is located within the water as it is being retrieved by the fisherman.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,643 issued to V. T. D'Orazio, et al is directed to a water-soluble polymer fishing lure coating having an odoriferous fish-attractant material dispersed therein. A composition for application on the fishing lures to provide olfactory stimulation of fish includes a volatile organic solvent, a polymeric material dissolved in the solvent and capable of forming a water-soluble coating, and a fish attractant material dispersed in the solution. A method for imparting an olfactory stimulus to a fishing lure includes applying said composition onto the lure, preferably by spraying, dipping or brushing, and then exposing the lure to air for volatilization of the organic solvent and deposition of the coating.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,638 issued to D. J. Vobejda is directed to an artificial hollow body fishing lure which provides a means for containing a liquid scent and dispensing that scent in metered amounts as the lure is drawn through the water. The lure contains a propeller at its rear end which turns as the lure is pulled through the water. Turning of the propeller conveys the liquid scent contained within the hollow lure and disperses it into the water to attract fish to the lure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,018 issued to W. E. S. Cart is directed to an artificial bait comprised of a tough, semi-rigid, flexible water-insoluble matrix material formed of hydrophilic macromolecular substances containing therein a fish attractant. The Carr baits are designed for placing on a hook and fishing in the same manner as is done with non-live natural baits.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,114 issued to F. Witteman, et al is directed to a composition for use as a fishing lure by attachment to a fishing hook. This composition contains a quantity of minute, buoyant, hollow microspheres, e.g., hollow glass microspheres, which are dispersed in a normally non-buoyant fishing bait material to produce sufficient buoyancy to cause the fish lure composition with hook to float. Suitable disclosed normally non-buoyant fishing bait materials are Velveeta cheese, American cheese, hamburger, and mashed salmon eggs.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,684,519 issued to E. S. Combs is directed to a fish bait made of comminuted organic tissue particles dispersed in a solidified polyacrylamide gel. When stored out of contact with water, the gel tightly compacts around the tissue particles and allegedly prevents biological degradation of the tissue. When immersed in water the gel swells to allow bacterial action to take place in the tissue. The tissue odor is released through the surrounding gel in the same manner as from tissue alone, and the gel is disclosed as protecting the tissue from decomposition.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,575 issued to T. Morita is directed to a fishing lure or plug device which contains self-chumming means for attracting fish to the lure for biting thereon. The lure is shaped like a bait fish or any usual shape of fish lure, spoon or the like, and has hooks attached to it, an eyelet means for attachment to a leader line to the fisherman or his reel. The lure body has a chamber formed therein for receiving a liquid container in the form of a vial or capsule containing a liquid such as fish oil, cod liver oil, or other fish-derived oil which is attractive to the fish being sought, the chamber being open at one or both ends with a retaining spring to retain the oil capsule therein, so that by puncturing the vial or capsule, the oil is dribbled out and entrained with the water to attract the fish.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,305 issued to J. O. Bridges is directed to a fishing lure having a fish-attractant body which is formed of a water-soluble polymer having a slow dissolution rate. The polymer contains a fish scent attractant which can be encapsulated, viz., trapped, within the polymer, e.g., fish or blood meal can be included in the polymer so that it will be slowly dispensed into the water as the polymer dissolves. The preferred polymer is polyvinyl alcohol having a pre-selected degree of hydrolysis of its ester groups to achieve the desired water-solubility rate, and optionally plasticized with glycerol. The attractant can be a sheet which has a plurality of parallel and co-extensive slits to provide parallel strips that depend from an unslit portion thereby permitting the sheet material to be wrapped about a lure body and secured in place so that the parallel strips extend rearly from the body, permitting them to undulate in the water as the lure is pulled through the water, simulating the swimming movements of a small fish. [Note FIG. 3]. Other embodiments include solid form lures shaped from polyvinyl alcohol which is gelled with a soluble borate.
It should be readily apparent from the foregoing that none of these patents discloses or suggests the soft and very soft plastic fishing lures containing a minor portion of particulate micro-encapsulated liquid fish attractant particles suspended or dispersed in a continuous, substantially water-soluble, polymeric binder blended with a major portion of a heavily plasticized vinyl plastisol to form fishing lures, preferably by molding. The lures of this invention achieve a combination of quick release of any fish attractant incorporated in said water-soluble polymeric binder, and gradual release of the fish attractant contained in said micro-capsules thereby offering a longer lasting presentation of the fish attractant at the exact location in the water where the lure is presented to the fish.